TV's Sir Trevor cleared of racism

The remark about Manning (l) was justified in that context, Ofcom said

Broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald has been cleared of making a racist remark about comedian Bernard Manning, despite more than 100 complaints to Ofcom.

The watchdog said the ex-newsreader had used strong language which was "clearly intended to parody Manning's own comedy" on his ITV1 series News Knight.

Any offence caused "was justified in the context", Ofcom ruled.

Sir Trevor referred to the late star as "a fat white bastard", but this was not judged to have breached Ofcom's code.

The broadcast, on 24 June, prompted 112 complaints.

Human error

Ofcom did, however, criticise ITV1's This Morning for failing to remove an expletive from a Lily Allen song it was using to accompany a fashion item on kaftans.

The broadcaster accepted the language was not suitable for live transmission and blamed human error during the 3 July edition of the magazine programme.

The BBC was also rebuked for showing a member of award-winning group Arctic Monkeys swearing at the Glastonbury Festival, in footage broadcast before the watershed.

"Had effective compliance procedures been in place, there should have been little difficulty in noting the offensive language and taking measures to ensure it was not transmitted," the regulator stated in its latest bulletin.